


New Girl: Cece Edition

by DreamsOfSleep



Series: Nick & Cece – The Best Friends Remix [1]
Category: New Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 03:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6782893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Nick and Cece become best friends first before Nick meets Jess. Part 1 of 3: Cece moves into the loft instead of Jess.</p>
<p>When Reagan was introduced in S5, I thought she was a poor man’s version of Cece. I thought Cece could have been the “new girl” in the loft during Jess’s absence and carried the show with the rest of the cast. Missed opportunity by the writers to explore different nuances of the loft relationships instead of trying to start that ill-fated Nick/Reagan romance. This is my take on that. (No worries, Jess fans! Jess is bound to make an appearance in the future, but Cece’s the glue for all the loft relationships in this AU-verse.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How They Met

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [We Could Both Be Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6164428) by [cecilia095](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilia095/pseuds/cecilia095). 



> I loved the detail in cecelia095's fic where Nick sees Cece as smart and beautiful. 
> 
> Also inspired by this behind-the-scenes cast video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lashokYLp7Y> (The whole video is great, but especially check out 1:53, where the actors get asked if they prefer a "Jess" type or a "Cece" type.) 
> 
> My first fic ever! I’m an avid New Girl fan and fic reader but I’m not a writer at all. This fic idea just wouldn’t leave me alone though. I hope to create a 3-part series based on this AU.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl walks into a bar... or Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into his...

It was a typical Friday night and Cece was sitting in a club among her regular clique of model friends. The loud music was giving her a headache and she was feeling restless as she half-listened to the vapid conversations going on around her. What was fun in her twenties had become increasingly tedious as she entered her thirties. She was ready for a change. However, she wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for so she continued to go to all the lame photoshoots and car shows her agency sent her on and she continued to hang out with the string of models she knew so well.

 _‘You should be grateful,’_ she told herself. _‘Isn’t this what you wanted?’_ She thought back to her childhood growing up in Portland, staring up at her wall filled with clippings of models from fashion magazines and dreaming about how she would one day become one of them far from her boring and ordinary life. Now she was one of them (sort of). She was semi-famous enough to book jobs regularly and get recognized a few times a month from the print ads she did. She also got hit on frequently by seemingly handsome, successful, and “desirable” men. Initially, it thrilled her to have all this positive male attention. However, what she did not expect was how hurt she was when she opened her mouth to speak and she would see that flash of surprise on their faces when she actually said something intelligent. After a string of short-lived and disastrous relationships in her early modeling career, she swore off relationships in favor of one-night stands. That way everyone had clear expectations. There were no confusing feelings or heartbreak and everyone could leave before they got sick of each other 

Cece was suddenly overcome by the feeling of being suffocated and couldn’t stand being in this place another second longer. As the other models eyed up the men on the dancefloor, Cece said, “Ugh, this place is dead. Did you guys want to go somewhere else?”

“What are you talking about, Cece? There are some really cute guys checking us out over there.” said Becky, an annoying willowy blond.

“We go here every Friday night. Can we just go somewhere different?” Cece got up and started pushing through the crowd to head for the exit and the other models dutifully followed her.

Standing outside of the club, Becky crossed her arms and frowned at Cece. “What now?”

Cece hesitated for a couple seconds before she just started walking left down the street. After 15 minutes and taking a couple of random turns, they entered a sketchier part of LA.

“Ugh, I feel like we’re going to get mugged out here. Where are we going Cece?” asked Brittany, a brunette with wide-set eyes. 

“I like,” Nadia said. “Is like home.”

“Umm…that place is open.” Cece pointed to a nondescript bar.

Rachel, a statueseque redhead, wrinkled her nose and said, “Yuck, looks like a dive. Can’t we just go back to the club?”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Cece asked in a voice way more confident than she felt in that moment.

“I’m not going to get shanked in this part of LA. I’m going back to the club.” Rachel said firmly.

The other models looked between Rachel and Cece and walked over to side with Rachel.

“Fine.” Cece said and turned on her heel to push open the bar’s door.

\---

The inside of the bar was dimly lit and slightly dingy but it was larger than it appeared from the outside. _'Damn, this is a dive,'_ Cece thought. She strode confidently to the bar and sat on one of the barstools. _'At least it’s quiet in here. What now, Cece?'_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the bartender. “What can I get ya?” 

“Gin and tonic.”

“Coming right up.”

As the bartender turned away to prepare her drink, a man sidled up to Cece and asked, “Hey, beautiful. Can I buy that drink for you?”

Cece put on her best steely-eyed bitch-face and coldly said, “Not interested.”

“C’mon, you’re all dressed up for a night out. Let me buy you that drink and keep you company.” He slid the fingers of his hand to graze along her arm. 

She narrowed her eyes and glared at his hand. “You better get your hand off me before I break it.” 

Suddenly, the bartender’s hand shot out and gripped the other man’s wrist. “She said no, pal. Get out of my bar before I throw you out.” 

_'Bitch. You weren’t that pretty anyway,'_ the other man muttered under his breath as he backed away. 

Cece turned her icy glare on the bartender. “Thanks, but I can take care of myself.”

The bartender held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I know you can. I just don’t like seeing people in my bar being hassled by jerks. Here’s your drink. On the house.” 

Cece nursed her drink while she considered how she was going to get home. She had no idea where she was and it had already been pretty late by the time she had entered the bar. The models had all driven together in one car to get to the club, but right now she couldn’t stand the thought of calling any of them to come back and pick her up. She didn’t have any credit cards on her and she didn’t know if she had enough cab fare to take her home. “Last call,” the bartender yelled out. As the number of the people trickled out and the time inched closer and closer to closing time, she decided to chance it on a sympathetic cabbie. She was standing outside the bar waiting for her cab, when the bartender exited and locked the door of the bar. He turned to see Cece standing at the curb and they locked eyes.

“Need a ride?” he asked her.

“I’m fine; I’m waiting for my cab.”

“C’mon, I can’t leave you standing out here all night.” 

“I’m not going home with you.”

“I’ll just take you home. *Your* home. Scout’s honor.” 

Cece dreaded the idea of standing in front of the bar alone for who knew how long so she sighed and said, “Okay.” 

She followed him to his car and gave him her address. They drove in silence. She started to feel sorry for being so mean to him. When he parked in front of her apartment building she turned to him and said, “Thanks. I’m sorry I was a jerk to you at the bar.”

“Don’t sweat it. I could tell you were having a rough night. I’m Nick by the way.” 

“Cece.”

They shook hands. 

“Thanks again for the ride.”

“See ya.”

She exited the car and he watched her until she entered her building safely before driving off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow start, but I always felt Cece takes a while to warm up to people. Also, who doesn’t love GoodGuy!Nick coming to the rescue? 
> 
> I actually have no idea how modeling actually works outside of binge-watching “America’s Next Top Model,” but I hope the details are semi-believable. Cece is a total badass but the show tends to make women important only relative to the guys they are dating. I wanted to explore her headspace more in fic. 
> 
> I don’t drink at all so feel free to correct me about any bar or alcohol-related details. I think Cece has ordered a Gin and Tonic frequently on the show so I have made that her "signature" drink.
> 
> Easter Egg: Alternate title summary is a reference to _Casablanca (1942)_


	2. Ex-Model

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A disastrous modeling job leads Cece to re-evaluate her life.

Cece was standing on the spinning platform of a car showroom in a short black cocktail dress like she had hundreds of times before. She had been standing there for hours with a smile plastered to her face. The usual crowd of rowdy men came to drool over her while looking at the fancy sportscars and hit on her with bad pickup lines which she had to fake-laugh at and pretend to be flattered by. She couldn’t wait to be done because her feet were killing her. She just wanted to go home, put on her sweats, pour herself some wine, and veg out on bad reality television. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of a familiar face and her smile faltered. It was that jerk from the bar. She was hoping he wouldn’t recognize her but the flash of recognition on his face made her stomach drop.

He walked over to her and leaned close to her ear and in a sleazy whisper said, “We meet again, beautiful. Figures you would be a car _slut_.”

Cece acted on instinct and kneed him in the groin. 

“Cece!” Brittany hissed. “That guy is a movie producer!” 

Car salesman and promo organizers rushed over to the scene. The jerk was doubled over on the ground. “That crazy bitch attacked me!” he wheezed out.

“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Cece yelled at him. That really set her off and several people had to hold her back from clawing the guy’s eyes out and placing some well-aimed kicks in sensitive areas with her stilettos.

“Cece! Out!” her agent Jerry yelled at her while pushing her outside of the promo area and into one of the arena’s business offices. 

\---

“What’s gotten into you lately, Cece?” Jerry asked her, leaning back against the conference room table with crossed arms. He had his _'I'm not angry, just disappointed in you.'_ face on. “You know the business. These car-show guys are just messing around. You have to stay professional. If every model attacked every guy who said something nasty to them, none of you would get any work. It’s just business; you stroke their egos a bit, we all get paid.”

Cece sank into an office chair and covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me Jerry. You’ve been really good to me ever since I got out to LA to model and you’ve gotten me all these great gigs. I’m sorry for ruining your event.”

“Don’t apologize to me, kiddo. I know these guys can be assholes. But that guy was some Hollywood big-shot. This gets around and I’m not sure I can book you on any more gigs for a while. You’ve been with me for a long time so I don’t want to see you go down like this. We’ll figure it out. Just take some time off and get your head on straight, ‘kay, kid?”

“Thanks Jerry,” she said gratefully.

“You need a ride home?” 

“I think I’ll just walk…it’s not that far from here.”

She went to change into her street clothes before exiting the expo area. 

\---

When she left the expo area and started walking, she realized she was in the same neighborhood as she had been in a few weeks ago when she had left the club. It looked different in the daytime, less sinister. After walking for a while, she stumbled upon the same nondescript bar. _‘A drink sounds about right,’_ she thought to herself before pushing open the bar’s door. Since it was the middle of the afternoon, there weren’t many patrons in the bar. The bartender’s back was to her but she recognized the same messy bedhead and well-worn flannel.

“What can I get ya?” Nick asked absent-mindedly as he turned back towards her. His eyes lit up in recognition. “Hey! Cece, right? Gin and tonic?”

She slid onto a barstool. “Sounds good.” 

He started fixing her drink. “Didn’t think I would be seeing you again. How’d you end up on the wrong side of town again?”

“I just got fired.”

“That sucks,” he said sympathetically. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I’ll leave you alone if you just want to sit here and drink.”

“Thanks.”

\---

After three or four drinks, Cece started feeling loose-limbed and comfortable. She folded her arms and rested her cheek upon them on the bar. “Did you ever wake up one day and wish your life was different?” she asked Nick suddenly as he wiped down the bar.

“I’m a guy in my 30s living with three roommates and working as a bartender. Sure, I do.”

“And I’m a model in my 30s still trying to “make it” by booking ads for hemorrhoid creams and boat shows,” she said wryly.

“I dropped out of law school with one semester to go,” he said challengingly. He stopped wiping the bar and looked directly into her eyes. “Sometimes the things you think will make you happy, just don’t.”

“You can say that again. What do you do then?”

“Get drunk and do stupid shit that people tell you not to do. How else are you supposed to figure it out?”

They shared a smile before Nick looked away and went back to wiping the bar.

“You’re a pretty smart guy, Nick.”

“I think you’ve had one too many,” he teased. “My shift is almost over; want me to drive you home?”

“You don’t have to…”

“Nah, come on, let’s go…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Model!Cece is pretty difficult for me to write. I get why the writers made her stop being a model. It just puts up a wall between her and the other characters which makes their interactions feel less natural. Hopefully, I can capture Cece’s voice better as the chapters progress and do her character justice.


	3. Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cece gets a new job.

The first two weeks of Cece’s mandatory model vacation were heaven. She spent the time sleeping in, binge-watching reality TV, and eating junk food. However as time went on, her bills started piling up. Her agent Jerry pulled some strings to get her some new gigs but she started ignoring his phone calls. One month in and the other models in the apartment sat her down in the living room and staged an intervention. 

“Cece, we love you, but this has got to stop!” Brittany cried. “You haven’t booked a modeling job in over a month. You haven’t even been trying! All you do is sit in your room, watch TV, and eat junk food. Who’s going to book you when you look like a hot mess and you have gained five pounds?” Cece rolled her eyes. “Why haven’t you been returning Jerry’s calls? We all know the guys at car shows are dicks, but Jerry told us that if you don’t book anything in the next two weeks, that the agency won’t pay for you to stay in this apartment any more.”

Cece looked around at all of the models’ concerned faces. These used to be her friends but they were just completely different people from her now. They weren’t bad people, but she just couldn’t live the way they did any more. “I’m sorry guys, I know you worry about me. I just can’t do this any more. I’ll move out in two weeks.”

The other models started tearing up and went up to embrace Cece in a group hug. “We’ll miss you.” Becky whispered tearfully into her hair. 

\---

Cece had gotten into the habit of visiting Nick’s bar every Saturday in the month after her big modeling disaster. She was usually dressed down in a tank top and sweats. Nick would have her usual gin and tonic waiting for her and she would sit and flip through a magazine or do a crossword puzzle at the bar. Nick would make sure none of the other patrons bothered her. Sometimes when the bar wasn’t busy, Nick would come over and they would make small talk about silly things or make up stories about other people in the bar. It was nice to talk to a guy that wasn’t trying to hit on her. This Saturday night she took a whole stack of apartment listings to the bar and tried to think about how she was going to afford to move out. 

During a lull in service, Nick came over and looked at all the apartment listings Cece had spread out before her on the bar. “Moving?”

Cece rubbed her tired eyes. “You’re looking at an ex-model. I have no job and no money and pretty soon I’m going to have no place to live.”

“They’re kicking you out of your place?” He looked at her with worried eyes.

“They’re giving me two weeks to find a new place. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, Nick. I had a job other people would kill for and I just blew it. Maybe I should just suck it up and go back to doing modeling. I can’t do anything else. I have no skills. I didn’t even graduate high school.” Cece could feel the burn of tears behind her eyes. _I’m going to cry in public. How embarrassing._

He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey, what happened to that girl I first met who told me she could take care of herself? You came out to LA all by yourself when you were a teenager from some nowhere town and you made it all on your own. That counts for something.”

She sniffled and swiped a finger under her eyes. She gave him a watery smile and said, “Nick Miller: Cheerleader."

He grinned, “Don’t spread it around.”

She propped her elbow on the bar and rested her chin in her hand. “What could I do though? I’m flat broke. I need money to even move to a new place.” 

He looked around. “How about working here?”

“Here? I don’t know shit about mixing drinks.”

“I could teach you.”

“They would just let you hire me to be a bartender with no experience?” she asked skeptically.

He gave her a look. “It’s mixing drinks, not brain surgery. I’ll talk to the bar manager Mike about letting you work here.”

He turned away to help another customer but Cece laid a hand on his arm to redirect his attention to her. 

“Thanks Nick,” she said gratefully.

He smiled at her. “Any time.”


	4. Moving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cece moves into the loft.

Cece had been working at the bar for about a week. In that time she had: messed up countless drink orders, broken five glasses in the ice bucket, cut the seltzer water line (twice), soaked Mike by trying to tap a keg (once), and cut her palm open when she was slicing lemons (once, how?!). Nick assured her that she was doing okay and that he messed up twice as badly as she did when he first started bartending, but she was still feeling discouraged. After a long shift, Cece sat down on a barstool and dropped her forehead against the bar. 

“I suck at this Miller.”

“It’s only been a week, Cece. You’ll get better.”

“Mike hates me.”

“Mike hates everybody.”

“Yeah, but he hates me the most.”

Nick patted her arm comfortingly and placed her regular gin and tonic in front of her. “Found a place yet?”

“Nah, everything in LA is either crazy expensive or the roommates are all creepy psychos.”

“I was actually thinking…never mind,” he trailed off, rubbing his neck self-consciously and looking away from her.

Cece raised her head. She had never heard Nick sound nervous around her before. “What?”

“One of my roommates is moving out so we’re actually looking for someone new. You probably don’t want to live with a bunch of guys you don’t even know though.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s a couple of blocks from the bar.”

“Cool…can I meet your other roommates first?”

“Wait…you’re seriously thinking about it?”

She shrugged. “Why not? Don’t think I can handle myself, Miller?”

“If anyone can handle themselves, you can,” he said mock-seriously before breaking into a grin.

She playfully punched him on the arm. “Set it up, Miller.”

\---

Nick, Schmidt, and Winston were all sitting on the couch waiting for Cece to arrive.

“Best behavior, Schmidt!” Nick warned.

Schmidt scoffed, “You’re one to talk. I’m the classiest guy up in here. I exude class. Look up ‘class’ in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of me.”

“Girl roommate, dude?” Winston said, “Winnie needs to be himself when he gets home from a hard day taking care of the streets. Winnie needs to let it all hang out.”

Nick cringed. “Stop talking about yourself in the third person, Winston. You know I hate that. And please don’t let it ‘all hang out,’” Nick said using air quotes with his fingers. “Both of you, don’t act creepy when she gets here. She’s a cool person. I don’t want to put an ad on Craigslist and get some psycho random for a roommate when Coach leaves.” 

They heard a knock at the door. “Must be her.” Nick muttered as we went to open the door. 

When she entered the room, both Schmidt’s and Winston’s mouths dropped open. Schmidt was the first to recover.

“Nick said you were pretty, Cecilia, but you are an Indian goddess.”

 _“Schmidt!...”_ Nick said through gritted teeth.

“It’s fine, Nick,” Cece said. She held out her hand to shake his hand, “You must be Schmidt.”

“Oh, you’ve heard about me? Nick must talk about me all the time; I’m a really important part of Nick’s life. I helped shape him into the fine specimen you see before you today.” He glanced over at Nick. “It’s a work in progress, really.” Nick rolled his eyes.

She looked over at Winston and held out her hand for him to shake. “And you must be Winston.”

“Yes, I am that. I mean, I am he. Who you be?,” Winston stammered as he shook her hand.

 _Be cool._ Nick mouthed to Winston behind Cece’s back. “He just graduated from the police academy.”

“Wow,” Cece said, sincerely impressed.

Winston stood up a little straighter and puffed his chest out proudly. “Would you like to see my badge, Cece?”

“Maybe some other time, Winston. That’s really cool that you’re a cop though.”

Schmidt waved at Winston dismissively, “Yes, yes, we all have impressive jobs. I for one am a marketing associate at Associated Strategies. Making mad cheddar, rubbing elbows with celebrities and politicians." Schmidt switched to an ingratiating tone, "We heard you’re a model, Cece. That must be fascinating.”

“Ex-model,” Cece corrected him. “I work with Nick at the bar now. Can I see the rest of the loft?”

“Sure, come on…” Nick said.

\---

Nick gave her a tour of the rest of the loft, including the kitchen, bedrooms, and bathroom.

“Urinals? This really is a guys’ apartment.” Cece commented.

“Yeah, sorry about that…” Nick said, rubbing his neck self-consciously. Cece just shrugged good-naturedly. 

“This would be your room, if you wanted to move in.”

Nick opened the door to the room directly across from his. Some boxes of Coach's things were still lying around waiting to be moved. Cece walked into the middle of the room and looked around at the bare walls of the room with her hands on her hips. She suddenly had a flashback of when she first came to LA all on her own as a young, fresh-faced model. All the other models had hated her and ostracized her. She had been all alone and so homesick and she had cried nearly every single day for a whole month before she was able to pull herself together. She remembered the day that she had told her reflection in the mirror, _'No one rescues you. You rescue yourself.'_ She had poured herself into becoming a successful working model and she had outlasted most of the models who had first started out with her.

“So…what do you think?” Nick asked her, taking her out of her thoughts.

“I’m in.” she said.

“Really?” he said with a hopeful expression.

“Yeah. Hand me the lease.” 


	5. Friends, Or…?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cece considers the possibility of more with Nick.

Cece had been living in the loft for about a month. Winston and Schmidt were actually really sweet once they got used to her. They had seen her at her worst with bedhead and no makeup, hung over after their drinking games, and vegging out on bad reality TV and junk food so they stopped putting her on a pedestal and started treating her like an actual human being. She liked to listen to Winston tell stories about his and Nick’s childhood growing up in Chicago when they were both unwinding after a long day. She thought it was adorable how much he loved his cat Furguson and he had a surprisingly good fashion sense for women’s clothes. Schmidt was also a really thoughtful person, once you got past all the external douchebaggery he displayed due to his latent insecurity about his weight. He was always cooking for everyone in the loft, kept everything obsessively clean, and was always surprising them with “just thinking about you” gifts. For Winston, that might be a new puzzle. For Nick, that might be baked goods. For Cece, that might be a fresh-cut bouquet of daisies because she had mentioned how they reminded her of her childhood home in Portland, once. 

The bar was so busy and they often worked so late or on opposite shifts that Nick and Cece didn’t get to spend much time together during the first few months they were living together. After three months working at the bar, Mike begrudgingly accepted that Cece was (in his glowing words) “not a totally incompetent bartender.” One afternoon, she was absent-mindedly cleaning wineglasses and chatting to Shane, one of the new assistant bar managers, when Shane suddenly asked her, “So…are you and Nick a thing?”

Cece was caught off-guard by the question and almost dropped the wine glass she was cleaning. “What? Me and _Nick_?! No…we’re just friends.”

“He’s kind of cute…do you think he’s seeing anyone?” 

Schmidt and Winston had hinted that Nick had gone through a terrible breakup with his long-term girlfriend Caroline when he dropped out of law school, but they had avoided going into any specifics. _(Schmidt looked remorseful the second that piece of information slipped out. “I shouldn’t have said that. Please don’t tell Nick I said that. Bros before hos, Cece,” Schmidt said solemnly. Winston smacked the back of Schmidt’s head. “Jar, Schmidt!” Winston looked at her apologetically, “Sorry, Cece, but Schmidt’s actually right. We can’t talk about her if Nick doesn’t tell you about her first. And Nick doesn’t talk about Caroline. Ever.”)_ Cece had never seen him show interest in anyone since she had met him.

“I don’t think so,” she replied noncommittally to Shane. Cece felt a pang of guilt over talking about Nick behind his back.

“He’s so different from all the guys I’ve met in business school. Could be fun, y’know?”

Cece gave Shane her best side-eye. “Dating a co-worker sounds…messy.”

Shane laughed. “Who said anything about dating?” Shane sashayed away into the bar’s back office.

\---

Cece was sitting in a booth with her knees drawn to her chest after a long night shift waiting for Nick to finish closing. Cece closed her eyes to rest them for a minute when she felt Nick slide into the booth next to her and place a drink in front of her. Not her usual gin and tonic, but a finger of whiskey. “Looks like you could use it.”

“Thanks, Nick. It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

He laughed. “We live together, you clown!”

“Yeah, but I miss hanging out with you. Just us.” She placed her head against his shoulder. “You know Shane likes you.”

“Shane, our bar manager, Shane?”

“Yeah, do you know another Shane?”

He shook his head like the very idea of someone liking him was ridiculous. “Nah, but she’s kinda scary. She would probably eat me alive.”

He took a swig of club soda from his tumbler. Cece leaned away from him so she could look at his face and placed her elbow on the table, resting her chin in her hand. “Hey, Nick…why haven’t you ever tried to hit on me?”

Nick choked on his drink and started coughing so hard that Cece had to slap him on the back a few times before he could answer. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “What? I thought you hated when guys do that to you.”

“I do. I was just curious. Red-blooded male and all that, y’know.”

He hesitated for a few seconds. “Don’t take this the wrong way…I’m not trying to insult ya…but you’re not really my type.”

Cece was intrigued by that answer. “What’s your type?”

“You’ve seen _Casablanca_ , right?”

“Who hasn’t?”

“I tend to fall for girls like Ilsa.”

“Why?”

“I’m the type of guy that girls find themselves spending more and more time with until they meet their husbands,” he said unselfconsciously without a hint of irony or bitterness.

"Aww..Nick…” 

Cece tried to find something comforting to say to him. The entire time she had known him, she had only looked at him as Friend Nick. She looked at his face and tried to imagine him as Boyfriend Nick. He wasn’t her usual type either. She usually went for the stereotypical “bad boys” with their slicked back hair and tattoos, walking Adonis’ that spent hours in the gym or obsessing over their macros. It seemed to fit: the model with the bad boy, but her relationships usually ended with them screaming at each other in the middle of the street. She did think Nick was attractive in a different way. She liked his open, honest face and his unpretentious sensibility. She noticed that he could be quiet, grumpy, and closed-off sometimes and he wasn’t a natural smiler, but when he was passionate and really believed in something it made his whole face light up. He would go on these long rants about how people were terrible and he hated everyone, but she noticed how he would always look out for the regulars at the bar and made sure they all got home safely. He would also grumble about whatever hair-brained scheme Schmidt or Winston had cooked up but he was always the first one there to support them. 

She suddenly had a vision of what it would be like to be Nick Miller’s girlfriend: _waking up cuddled next to him in bed, him cooking her breakfast before kissing her and heading off to work, a flash of date nights and weekend trips, meeting each other’s families, holding his hand as they walked down the street…_ For the first time in a long time, she didn’t hate the idea of being someone’s girlfriend.

“S’okay, Cece, you don’t have to say there’s someone out there for me. It is what it is.”

Cece suddenly reached out to pull his head down so she could kiss him. It was just a quick press of her mouth against his lips and she felt…

 _Nothing. Nada. Zip._ No fireworks or goosebumps. Cece pulled back to look at him. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. He wasn’t a bad kisser but there was just no chemistry between them. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings though. She could feel her face growing hot as she turned her head to look straight ahead away from him. 

“Um...That was…” she began.

“…awkward.” He finished.

She turned her head back to look at him. His eyes were open now and he was looking at her with an amused expression. She covered her face with her hands. “God, that was embarrassing. Can we just forget that happened?”

He grabbed her hands to bring them away from her face, and put his hand under her chin to turn her face back towards him again so she would look him in the eyes. “I like being your friend, Cece. That’s not just a line to get in your pants. It’s forgotten. Friends?”

“Friends.” They shook on it. Cece laid her head back on Nick’s shoulder. 

“Do you remember the day we met?” Nick asked her.

“Of course. Must have been fate. Nick Miller – always there when you need him.”

He smiled down at her and pressed a kiss to her temple. “The place where you were sitting was the exact place I was sitting when I decided to quit law school.”

“Really?” she looked up at him in surprise.

“That’s how I ended up here. Must have been fate.” He echoed her phrasing with a smile. “You had that same look on your face that I had when I looked in the mirror every morning for three years when I was in law school.”

“What look?”

He waved a hand once in front of his own face with a stony expression. “ _Trapped._ Dead in the eyes.”

“That obvious, huh?”

“You know why we’re such good friends?” he continued on, “We’re really similar, you and me. People always want us to be something we’re not. They underestimate us. We had to fight to choose to be something else.” He had a faraway look in his eye, lost in his thoughts, as if he wasn’t really thinking about what he was saying to her.

“Nick?” Cece inquired. She shook his arm, which brought him back to the present. He shook his head as if getting rid of a daze.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “It’s getting pretty late. Want to go home now?” He rose from the table.

“Nick…tell me about Caroline.” Cece blurted out.

Nick’s face went blank. “Did Schmidt tell you about her or did Winston?” he asked in a flat voice as he looked away from her.

“They didn’t mean to…they just said she was your long-term girlfriend in law school and you two broke up when you dropped out.”

“That’s all there is to tell.”

“Nick…” she touched his arm and gave him a look, “we tell each other everything.”

He gave her a pained look in return. “Cece, I want to, I really do, but I just can’t…not tonight, okay?”

She didn’t push the issue. “Okay…just promise me you’ll tell me about her... someday?”

He nodded and turned away from her to walk towards the bar’s door. Cece rose from the table and followed him outside into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really challenging for me to write. One of the common complaints I have seen about “New Girl” is that every new guest star is a love interest. I think there is always a tendency to make a male/female pairing romantic but I think platonic relationships can be just as interesting. There is always the question of whether a platonic relationship will eventually become romantic, so I wanted to take that out of the equation. The writers tried to make Nick/Jess platonic in S4, but they already went all the way with that relationship, so they can’t just take that back. I wanted to head that off early in this fic and just make Nick and Cece really good friends. They like and respect each other but they have no interest in starting a romantic relationship with each other. They’ve both been hurt by people in the past so I like the idea of them helping each other open up to the possibility of love again. 
> 
> Apologies if this is a total misinterpretation of the movie _Casablanca (1942)_. I kind of wanted to work in a film noir thing to callback to the episode “Pepperwood” with Nick’s alter ego. I’m not really a film buff so that seemed like the most obvious choice to get the point across. I really wanted to choose a film where an actress dresses similar to Jess’s vintage style (foreshadowing!) but as I mentioned above, I have a limited knowledge of classic film. Feel free to share more “fitting” films in the comments.


	6. Caroline, Again (Part 1 - The Invitation)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick receives a wedding invitation.

_‘CODE RED,’_ Schmidt texted Cece one night when she was working at the bar. __

‘Schmidt, if this is another false alarm about spotting Kanye West, I’m going to kill you.’ She texted back.

_‘That was Kanye! That’s CODE CRIMSON though (celebrity spottings). You guys never listen to me when I bring up the color system at the loft meetings. This is an actual CODE RED (loft emergency). Nick just got an invitation to a wedding that he was supposed to go to with Caroline. Guess they forgot to update the guest list. All hands on deck. Get back here ASAP.’_

\---

She got Big Bob to cover the rest of her shift and rushed back to the loft. She found Schmidt and Winston sitting on the couch in the living room with worried expressions. “How is he?” she asked as she entered the apartment and threw her keys on the side table by the door. 

“We have no idea.” replied Winston. “He hasn’t said anything yet. He’s just been sitting on his bed staring at the invitation since he got it.”

“This is bad, you guys,” said Schmidt. He turned to Cece. “You weren’t here for this part, but he went on a three-month long bender after Caroline dumped him. He would only come out of his room to get more alcohol. He barely ate anything. He didn’t go to work. He was a ghost by the end of it. You probably met him about six months after the breakup when we got most of her out of his system and he was semi-normal again. It took all three of us to do that and Coach isn’t even here any more.”

“He’s never been great at taking care of himself,” Winston said. “But she really broke him.” Winston ran a hand down his face. “We wouldn’t tell you this and betray Nick if we didn’t have to, but you’re one of us now.” 

“A bro by default.” Schmidt nodded sagely. 

Winston continued, “You’re probably the first person, and woman for that matter, that he has trusted since Caroline.” Cece stared at Winston wide-eyed at this disclosure. 

“I care about Nick a lot, but what can I do? He hasn’t told me anything about Caroline and I suck at comforting other people.”

“Just talk to him. Maybe he wasn’t ready to tell you then, but I think he might be ready to tell you now. He won’t talk to either of us.”

\---

Cece paced in the hallway outside the door of Nick’s room and bit her nails. This was a lot of pressure. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing since Nick seemed to shut down the first time she asked about Caroline so she didn’t know what she was allowed and not allowed to say. Finally, she bit the bullet and knocked on his door. When there was no reply, she tried the doorknob. It was unlocked so she opened the door and entered his room, closing the door behind her.

He didn’t acknowledge her when she entered the room. She found him sitting on his bed with his arms crossed and resting on his knees just staring at the invitation lying on his bed. She sat in the office chair at his desk and waited for him to speak first.

After a long while, still staring blankly at the invitation, he said, “I never told my law school friends we broke up. I think that made the breakup less real to me, like we _had_ to get back together since we had told everyone we were going to the wedding together. I know it mattered to her what they thought. I did think she would have told them by now, but maybe she forgot. If we had made it, we would have celebrated our five year anniversary there.”

“Have you talked to her since then?”

“I called her every single day after we broke up until she changed her number. She never picked up.” His voice cracked on the last sentence.

She looked at the invitation. “I bet Steve and Bree Handelman-Pyong know her new number.” 

For the first time since she entered the room, Nick finally turned his head to look directly at her. “You think I should call her?”

“They still would have invited you to the wedding if they knew you broke up, right?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Call her and tell her you’re still going to the wedding.”

\---

“You _WHAT?!_ ” Schmidt roared.

 _“Shh…he’ll hear you!”_ Cece hissed at him and made calming motions with her hands. 

Schmidt pinched the bridge of his nose. “So let me get this straight,” he hissed, lowering his volume, “Not only did you tell him to talk to that she-devil after not speaking to her for months since their breakup..after *she* dumped *him*, by the way, and froze him out of her life…but you told him to go with her to a wedding that they were supposed to go to _together._ As a couple. On their five year anniversary.” Schmidt fingers tore at his hair. “Are you _insane?!_ This will be ten times worse than their breakup! That succubus will destroy him.” 

“Sorry, Cece, I’m going to have to side with Schmidt on this one,” Winston said with his arms crossed across his chest, “I think you are one of the few people who know Nick the best, but you don’t know about this. She makes him crazy. She’ll have him wrapped around her finger by the end of the wedding right before she rips his heart out again.” 

“Guys, _relax!_ I have a plan. That invitation was a total mean-girl mind game. She does want him to call her, so that’s a risk, but she doesn’t want him back. She just wants to pretend to their fancy law school friends that she still has the perfect relationship with Nick and he’s some bigshot lawyer. What she doesn’t expect is that all of us will be there. She wants to parade Nick around? Well, too bad, because he has a _model_ girlfriend now.” 

_“Ohh…”_ Schmidt and Winston exclaimed together.

“You, diabolical genius, you!” Schmidt said looking admiringly at Cece. 

Cece took a small bow. “If we can get Nick to see what an evil _bitch_ she is and have him give her up willingly, Caroline should be out of his system for good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, this chapter really got away from me. This was originally supposed to just be one chapter (Caroline, Again) but I had to split it into three. Guess Caroline really did have a hold on Nick Miller’s heart, huh? I didn't realize how much I needed him to have closure on that relationship until I actually started writing this part; none of the other plotlines I have in mind for this series works without that closure. Nick can't become the person he needs to be until he lets her go. I hope you enjoy this three-parter!


	7. Caroline, Again (Part 2 – Kryptonite)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caroline always did make Nick Miller weak...

They were standing in the parking lot of the country club where the wedding was taking place. Nick pulled at his tie nervously. Cece batted at his hands and re-adjusted it.

“Stop that, Nick.” 

“I don’t know why you made me wear one of Schmidt’s suits. My regular suit was perfectly fine!” 

“Ugh, the Miami Vice suit,” said Schmidt. “That is an insult to the word _suit_. An abomination upon the eyes of humanity…” 

“Miami Vice is cool!” Nick argued. 

“Shut it, Miller,” said Cece as she brushed down the lapels of his suit and stood back to admire him. “You look great.” 

“So do you,” he said earnestly. “You know, you didn’t have to come with me, Cece. You don’t even know anybody here. It’s just a bunch of boring lawyers talking about their yachts and mansions…” 

Cece interrupted him. “It’ll be fun if I’m here with you.” 

“Aww…” said Winston. Cece and Nick both turned to give Winston a look. He raised a closed fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. “Sorry, I thought we were sharing a moment.”

They turned to walk inside the building with Schmidt and Winston leading the way, Nick and Cece trailing behind them arm in arm. 

“Why are Schmidt and Winston here again?” Nick whispered. “They weren’t invited and they don’t know anybody here either. I don’t think they even like weddings!” 

Cece shrugged. “Open bar. Single, desperate bridesmaids. They’re basically trying to re-create _Wedding Crashers_.” 

“Schmidt’s idea, right?”

“Totally.”

\---

Weddings never held much appeal for Cece. She never was one of those girls that had her entire wedding planned out when she was five. Male attention had always come easy to her, but she chafed at the idea of “belonging” to someone else. She fidgeted throughout the ceremony, smoothing out her dress, looking at her nails, tapping the toe of her stiletto. As the bride and groom said their vows, she looked over at Nick. He wasn’t looking at the altar but staring straight ahead at a woman with blonde hair. Cece glanced over at Schmidt and Winston sitting next to her. _‘That’s her,’_ Schmidt mouthed.

As the ceremony drew to a close and the bride and groom made their way back down the aisle, she saw Nick swallow hard once and plaster on a smile before getting up and approaching the blonde.

 _“Remember,”_ Cece whispered to Schmidt and Winston just out of Nick’s earshot. _“No one leaves Nick alone with her.”_ They both gave her a thumbs up and tried to mingle inconspicuously close by in the crowd. She picked up her pace to link arms with Nick again. She saw Caroline’s smile falter for a second before she recovered. 

“It’s good to see you again, Nick.” Caroline said in an insincerely warm tone and she leaned in to give him a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. “I didn’t know you were bringing a date.” 

“It’s good to see you too, Caroline.” Nick said. His hand lingered on the small of her back for a beat too long before he let her go. “This is my friend, Cece.” 

_Show time._ She adopted her vapid, syrupy-sweet model voice, which she had perfected from countless hours hanging around other models. “Oh, Nicky’s so modest.” she chortled. “I’m his girlfriend.” She took his hand and draped it over her hip, covering it with her own hand, and started petting his beard with her other hand. Nick gave her an odd look like she had just spontaneously sprouted two heads. 

_“You feel okay? You hit your head or something?”_ Nick whispered in her ear before turning back to look at Caroline. “She’s just kidding…we’re just friends.” 

Cece thought she saw a relieved look pass over Caroline’s face briefly before she pasted on a fake smile again. “Everyone’s meeting by the bar in the banquet hall,” she said. “We should be heading over there now for the reception.” Caroline started walking away into the crowd. 

Nick unlinked his arm from Cece’s and went to follow Caroline, but Cece pulled him back by his elbow. “I really think I should go with you, Nick,” Cece said in a pointed tone. 

“Nah. I’m just going to go say hi to all my law school friends. I’ll be right back. Just hang out for a bit.” He looked over her shoulder. “I think those guys are checking you out. Go talk to them. See how many of their numbers you can get. I bet that’ll probably be more interesting than talking to the people I went to law school with. I’ll come rescue you in a little while, okay?”

She looked over her shoulder to a bunch of guys in suits gaping at her. She turned her head back again. "Nick-" she began. But she was alone. He was already too far into the crowd to hear her.

\---

She was sitting at one of the dining room tables with Schmidt and Winston. They were trying to furtively watch Nick and Caroline from afar on the opposite side of the banquet hall. “Great.” Schmidt muttered. “Well that plan was a failure. Five minutes in and we’ve already lost him. Your feminine wiles have failed us, Cece.”

“He said he would be right back,” Cece said distractedly, nervously biting her nails.

“This is how it starts,” Schmidt said. “Once he’s with her, it’s like he’s a completely different person. He forgets about everything else but her.”

“I can’t watch this sober.” Winston said, getting up from the table. “Either of you want a drink?”

“Whiskey. Neat.” said Schmidt.

“Gin and tonic.” said Cece.

“Coming right up,” Winston said walking away to the bar. 

\---

After Winston returned from the bar with their drinks and they spent five more excruciating minutes spying on Nick and Caroline, Cece said, “I can’t just sit here and watch this any more. I’m going over there.”

“Well then, we’re coming with you,” said Schmidt. He downed the rest of his drink and slammed down his tumbler. He started getting up from the table but then his face paled as he looked across the room and he sat back down abruptly. 

“What is it, Schmidt?” Cece asked. 

_“Hide me!”_ Schmidt hissed. He put his hands over his eyes as if to shield his face from view. _“It’s Elizabeth!”_

Cece looked over to a brown-haired woman who had just entered the dining room. 

“Who’s Elizabeth?” Cece asked Winston who had a similar panicked look on his face. 

“Schmidt’s college ex-girlfriend.” 

“What’s she doing here?” Schmidt hissed. “I thought this was a wedding for Nick’s law school buddy.”

“She must be dating somebody here,” Winston replied. 

Schmidt’s eyes darted frantically to look for the nearest exit. “I’m just going to…” Schmidt trailed off as he started to slink away from the table. 

“Nuh-uh, buddy,” Cece said, grabbing his upper arm. “Nick needs us!” 

Schmidt looked pained. “You can handle this, Cece. I believe in you.” He removed Cece’s hand from his arm and quickly darted to the nearest exit behind their table, out of Elizabeth’s eyeline. 

_“Schmidt!”_ Cece hissed after him.

“Then there were two.” Winston said, staring at the doorway Schmidt disappeared through.

\---

As Cece and Winston walked across the dining room around the dance floor, an elderly woman tapped Winston on the shoulder. 

“Would you like to have this dance, young man?” she asked him. 

Winston shared a look with Cece and she whispered, “We don’t have time for this, Winston!” 

The woman held out her hand and looked up at Winston expectantly. Winston caved, taking the woman’s hand in his. 

“Just one dance, Cece. I can’t say no to someone who looks like my Nana. My mama didn’t raise me that way.” 

As Winston led the woman out onto the dance floor, Cece muttered to herself, “And then there was one.”

\---

Cece finally made it over to Nick and Caroline’s group. It looked like Caroline had a death grip on Nick’s hand. She touched Nick’s elbow, they locked eyes briefly, and he nodded his head at her in acknowledgement of her presence. 

“…So I said, if you don’t have that for me on my desk on Monday, sick kid or not, you’re fired!” roared a curly-haired man in an expensive-looking gray suit. He took a sip of the whiskey in his tumbler, while the rest of the group tittered at the anecdote. “So Nick, last I heard, you were almost done with law school. Where are you working these days?” the man asked. “We’ve done a terrible job keeping in touch with each other.” 

“I actually dr..” Nick started to say when Caroline cut him off. “He’s a junior associate at Greenfield, Johnson, & Morris.” 

“That’s a great firm. Very prestigious,” the man said with an impressed tone. 

Nick looked over at Caroline with a frown, before pasting a smile on his face. “Yeah, the workload is intense, but you know what they say: work hard, play hard.” 

“That’s the spirit!” the man said, slapping Nick affectionately on the back while Nick smiled back at him weakly. Cece was in shock. She could not believe the words that were coming out of Nick’s mouth. The man looked Cece up and down appraisingly, like a piece of meat. Cece cringed internally and narrowed her eyes at him. 

“I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Benjamin. How do you know Nick?” 

“Must be the client entertainment,” quipped a woman in the group with a sleek bob and cateye glasses. Cece glared daggers at Nick. He looked away from her guiltily and remained silent. 

Benjamin laughed and looked back towards Nick to ask, “No, really Nick, how do you know her?” 

Cece glared at Nick and said scathingly, “Yeah, who am I to you, Nick?” 

“She’s one of the firm’s secretaries.” Caroline interjected quickly. 

“Ah, that makes sense,” Benjamin said. “You’re far too pretty to get stuck in a courtroom with Miller.” He leaned in closer to her and said, “You and me should grab a drink some time.” 

“No thanks,” she said firmly. 

“Come on, just one drink…” he reached out to stroke her arm up and down with his index finger. 

Cece looked at his hand in disgust and backed away from him. “In your dreams.” She locked eyes with Nick once more. His eyes were burning into Benjamin’s back and she could tell he was grinding his teeth trying to keep his temper under control, but he remained silent. Furious, she turned on her heel to walk away.

“Some girls are so uptight,” she heard Benjamin mutter to the group as she stormed off. 

\---

Cece sat down on the floor of the coat closet with the bottle of white wine she had swiped from the open bar. She popped the cork on the bottle and took a swig. _‘Stupid Caroline making Nick into a stupid douche with her stupid female superpowers,’_ she thought to herself. She heard a cough to her left and stood up to push a bunch of hangers with floor-length overcoats to the side to reveal Schmidt sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest.

“Hey, Cece,” said Schmidt sheepishly. “How’s Nick?” 

“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” Cece said, sitting back down on the floor beside him. She took another swig of wine. “Nick’s a jerk."

"Told you.” Normally Schmidt would be gloating at being proved right but he just looked sad. “Caroline is like one of the bodysnatchers,” he said. Cece offered the bottle of wine to Schmidt and he took a swig. 

“ _Argh!_ ” She let out a cry of frustration as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I thought Nick didn’t care what any of these yuppies thought about him. I thought he was different, but maybe he’s just like them.” 

Schmidt shook his head. “He _is_ different. Nick doesn’t care about what these people think about him. That’s why he hasn’t spoken to them since he dropped out of law school. But he cares what _she_ thinks about him. She’s his kryptonite.” He passed the bottle back to her. 

“But if he wants to be with her, maybe we should let him. He’s an adult. He can make his own choices,” Cece said. 

Schmidt looked horrified at her suggestion. “She’s a succubus. She’ll take his life force. You think it’s just this? Little white lies at cocktail parties about what he does? No, it’s everything. The right job, the right house, the right friends, the right life. The Nick Miller we know and love will cease to exist.” Schmidt paused, looking into the middle distance. “He’ll do it because he loves her, even though it’ll kill him.” He looked back at Cece. “But we both know he deserves more than that. All she can give him are the scraps of her heart. She’ll never be able to love him the way he loves her.” 

“What can I do?” Cece implored, her voice taking on a desperate edge. “She knows exactly which of Nick’s buttons to push to make him turn into Douche Zombie Nick.” 

Schmidt spoke with deep conviction, “Never stop fighting for him. He cares what she thinks, but he also cares what _you_ think. You make him brave, Cece. You know the worst about him and you haven’t run away screaming. You stayed. You let yourself trust him. You don’t ask him to be anything more than what he is. You just push him to be the best version of himself. Nick thinks the way Caroline treats him, the way she lets other people treat him, is what he deserves. He is so terrified that everyone who loves him will leave him that he can’t let her go. You have to help him let her go.”

Cece let Schmidt’s words sink in for a few minutes, letting them strengthen her resolve. Then she reached over and squeezed Schmidt’s hand. “You’re a good friend, Schmidt.” She got up from the floor of the coat closet and went to find Nick. 

\---

She went back to the banquet hall and scanned the area for Nick but couldn’t find him. She saw Winston still on the dance floor with a different elderly woman. She walked over and tapped Winston on the shoulder.

“Winston, did you see where Nick went?” she asked. 

“Photobooth,” Winston said and gestured at a hallway across from the dance floor with a tilt of his head. 

Cece paused and gave Winston a half-smile, gesturing to his partner with a wave of her hand, “Couldn’t say no, right?” 

“They all look like my Nana.” Winston said sheepishly.

Cece patted his arm and said, “It’s alright, Winston. I got this.” And she walked over to the hallway where the photobooth was located. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to riff on the canon detail that Cece is horrible at distracting people so the "fake model girlfriend" plot wouldn't work out. It was really fun to twist what they did with Jess as Nick's fake girlfriend on the show. I wasn't sure if I wanted Nick to be in on the plot or not, but I think I made the right choice by having him be oblivious to that. The version of Nick in this AU doesn't see Cece as just a pretty face so he should get weirded out when she is hanging all over him trying to make Caroline jealous. He likes Cece for Cece and would never use her or ask her to demean herself that way. He totally would have slugged Benjamin if Caroline wasn't there. Not because he sees himself as a white knight and thinks Cece can't defend herself, but because he hates seeing people being disrespected, especially his friends. *No one* disrespects Nick Miller's friends or family. Nick's loyalty is one of the great trademarks of his character on the show. 
> 
> I loved Nick's speech to Schmidt's dad in "Return to Sender" so I did a little role reversal with Schmidt delivering a big heartfelt speech for Nick. (Schmidt just loves Nick *so* much.) And here comes Badass!Cece to save the day…
> 
> Easter Egg: The actors' last names actually sound pretty good as a law firm, no? :)


	8. Caroline, Again (Part 3 – Free Man)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick finally lets Caroline go.

Cece ripped open the curtain of the photobooth to find Caroline sitting on Nick’s lap. Their faces both turned to look up at her.

“What are you doing, Cece?” Nick asked her with a confused voice. 

Cece ignored him and asked Caroline directly, “Why did you lie about Nick’s job?” 

Nick leapt to her defense, “Come on, Cece, you know how these people are…they wouldn’t get why I did what I did, but Caroline gets it.” 

Caroline couldn’t meet Cece’s eyes. Instead, she turned her face back to Nick and said, “Actually, Nick…I said that to stop you from embarrassing yourself.” 

Nick looked like he had been sucker-punched. “What do you mean?”

“Look at all your law school friends. They are the same age as you and they have their lives _together_. They have moved on and grown up and you are still stuck working at the same shitty dive bar and living with the same roommates in the same apartment you were living in when you were 25.” 

Nick’s voice took on an angry edge. “I’m not ashamed of my job.” 

Caroline let frustration seep into her voice. “Come on, Nick! You are such a smart guy. You could have so much more out of life, but you just gave up. One semester, Nick! You could have had a good, stable job by now and your own place. We could have started a family!” 

“Don’t throw that in my face, Caroline. We could still have had all those things, a good life. I didn’t give up; I chose to drop out.” 

Caroline scoffed. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. It’s the same argument we have had a million times. You didn’t even take the bar.” 

“Caroline…I passed the bar.” He reached into his suit jacket pocket, pulled out his wallet, and took out a folded piece of paper. 

Caroline took the piece of paper and unfolded it. She stared at the document in awe. “Nick…this is amazing!” Her face lit up. “Do you know what this means? You can still be a lawyer! I bet I can pull a few strings with Benjamin and we can get you a job in the field. It might not be glamorous, at first, but you can finish law school and then…”

“Caroline,” he cut her off. He took the document back, re-folding it, placing it back in his wallet and his wallet back into his suit jacket pocket. “I don’t *want* to be a lawyer.” 

“But you passed the bar,” she said disbelievingly. “Why would you throw away all your hard work?” 

“I didn’t throw it away; I just needed to know I could do it. That’s it. I *like* being a bartender.” 

Caroline stood up and pushed Cece aside so she could get out of the photobooth. She turned to face Nick. “I can’t believe you! I thought you wanted to be with me. To have a new start to our relationship.” 

“I do. _God, I do._ ” He said, his voice filled with emotion, “But if you want me to be that guy, someone like Benjamin, that’s not who I am. I love you, but I’m not that guy.”

“That’s who I need to be with though, Nick. We're not 25 anymore. It's time for you to grow up and get a *real* job so you can have a *real* life. I want the nice house in the suburbs, I want the 2.5 kids, I want to be able to take a family vacation every once in a while and not just be scraping by to make ends meet. If you can’t give that to me, I can’t be with you.”

“Caroline, I’m not that guy.” Nick repeated sadly. 

Caroline approached him and cupped his face with her hands. “Then it’s goodbye for good this time, Nick,” she kissed his cheek. She turned away from him and started walking away, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

Nick watched her walk away into the crowd until he could no longer see her. He rested his elbows on his knees and clutched his head in his hands. He drew the curtain of the photobooth closed again.

\---

Cece had stood by and watched the whole argument in silence. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion and she felt paralyzed. It was like she was watching the whole thing unfold while she was standing outside her own body and she was helpless to stop it. She shook herself out of her daze and then opened the curtain again.

"Nick-" she started. 

“Don’t, Cece,” he said through gritted teeth with his eyes closed. “I just need you to leave me alone right now. I don’t want to talk to you and you don’t need to babysit me. That’s why you guys came, right? To make sure poor, fragile Nick Miller doesn’t have another nervous breakdown.” 

“We just care about you.” 

“I’m an adult, Cece. I can take it.” 

Cece slumped to the floor to sit against the exterior of the photobooth. “We all need a little help some times, Miller. Yell at me, get angry, tell me it was my fault you didn’t get Caroline back because I couldn’t stay out of your business, but I’m not going anywhere.”

Nick pulled the curtain closed again. Silence from the photobooth. Cece closed her eyes and waited.

\---

She started to doze off when she felt someone shake her shoulder and call her name. She opened her eyes to find Nick looking down at her. “Schmidt and Winston are waiting for us.”

The reception was winding down but there were still a few people milling around. Schmidt and Winston were sitting at a table nursing their final drinks for the night. They looked up at Cece with questioning eyes when she approached the table with Nick. She shook her head at them. They all sat around the table in tense, uncomfortable silence and watched the few remaining people out on the dance floor.

Cece suddenly thought back to her childhood and her best childhood friend Jess. They had been outcasts in high school so they never got invited to any parties, but whenever they were sad they would turn up the stereo loud in Cece’s basement and dance like maniacs. The memory warmed her from the inside out and soothed the pain from the rough day. She looked around the table at the unhappy faces of her friends. _'Groovy Kind of Love'_ came on, one of Jess’s favorite songs. 

"Come on, Miller,” she commanded abruptly, pulling his arm to lead him to the dance floor. 

“Cece,” he said tiredly. “You know I don’t dance.” 

“Can you just do this for me, please?” she said pleadingly. 

He sighed. “Okay.” 

He held out his arms to her but she batted them away and started doing Jess’s special chicken dance (the one with the more realistic pecks!). He just stared at her for half a beat, then started imitating her. 

“That looks like _sooo_ much fun,” she heard Schmidt say as he got up to join them. Winston followed Schmidt and started joining in too. They all started laughing at how ridiculous they looked until they were all doubled over. Soon the music ended. The DJ started packing up.

“Let’s go home, guys.” Cece said. Schmidt and Winston started walking towards the exit, arguing good-naturedly over which route was the fastest to take. Nick offered her his arm and she linked her arm through his. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear.

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’s forgotten.” 

They trailed Schmidt and Winston to the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the details I love in canon is Nick passing the bar so I had to work that in. One of my gripes is that the writers sometimes make Nick too dumb. He's eccentric and an underachiever, but he's not dumb. My favorite Nick is S1/S2 Nick so it was a real treat to get under his skin in this fic. I hope I did him justice. 
> 
> Hope you liked the hint of Jess at the end! Nick Miller isn't ready for her yet though; he isn’t the person he needs to be yet to meet her. (Sorry.) Don't worry, roomfriends, she's coming for him! They are destined to be together. :)


End file.
